Ancient Forest
The Ancient Forest is a hidden location in Final Fantasy VII situated on a plateau in the Cosmo Area just south east of Cosmo Canyon. The player can get there by a green, black, or gold chocobo. When the Ultimate Weapon is defeated, it leaves a crater that allows the player to reach the forest by foot. The Ancient Forest is a puzzle involving the use of plant pods and the placement of frogs and flies to progress. It contains many rare items and enemies. An unusual feature to the forest is that if the player gets stuck or lost, they can press to instantly return to the entrance. The enemies around have an annoyingly high evade, so using weapons with 255% accuracy helps: God's Hand for Tifa, and Long Barrel R and Sniper CR for Vincent. If the player manually changes the on the settings to do other than its default purpose, such as to set it to open the menu, the assigned purpose for the button won't work as will always transport the player to the beginning of the screen. Locations Left Area Center Area Right Area Treetops Cave Quests Navigating the forest By walking cautiously towards the carnivorous flower while pressing OK, the player gets the Supershot ST for Vincent. If the player gets too close, the flower snaps and reduces the party's HP, although it cannot kill them. The best way to get across the hanging plants is to grab two flies and leave them somewhere nearby, and then get another fly. The player can then set the flies in the plants in a row to get across. On the other side there is a Spring Gun Clip behind the tree for Red XIII. To get the Slash-All Materia from the carnivorous flower, the player must put the beehive into it. The flowers with pink "tongues" can be used to jump across, and a fly is needed to shut the hanging plant. Up on a little ledge the player should find a frog and two hanging plants, one on each side. The player should take the frog and put it in the left plant and jump on top of it. The plant will spit out the frog sending the player on a higher ledge where they can get the beehive. Using the frog again in the plant on the right side lets the player proceed to the next area. The treasure on the tree trunk cannot be reached yet. After putting flies in the two hanging plants and using the "tongue" flower, the player can reach the treetops. Up in the treetops the player can find a way back to the Second Area by going left, so they can get the Minerva Band, a bracer only female party members can use. After going back up to the treetops the player can find the Typhon Materia on the right side, going across using the "tongue" flowers. The player should then backtrack along the "tongue" flowers and find another way back down, by going around down the tree trunk. This exit can be easier to spot when using the game's feature that marks all exits with a red triangle. Climbing down the tree on the left part of the area, the player should grab a fly, and put it into the first of the two hanging plants on the right. Because one of them is already closed, the player can go across and reach the beehive, which can be used to close the carnivorous flower nearby. The player should then take the remaining fly and use it on the hanging plant on the left side of the carnivorous flower to get across. There is one more fly on the left, and putting it into the tree hole lures out a frog who comes out to eat the fly. The player should take the frog and cross the gap again to the right. If the plant has already digested the fly used to cross the gap the last time, the frog can be used in the plant. The last move is to put the frog in the plant on the right used to reach the beehive, and hop on it. If the player is facing right when the plant spits the frog out, and they will be sent flying near the exit to the fourth area. There is an Elixir and the Apocalypse weapon for Cloud on the way out. Items * Supershot ST * Spring Gun Clip * Slash-All Materia * Minerva Band * Elixir * Typhon Materia * Apocalypse Enemies 1st and 3rd areas * Rilfsak x3 * Epiolnis x2 * Diablo * Diablo, Rilfsak x2 * Rilfsak x2 (Back attack) * Rilfsak x3 (Side attack) * Rilfsak x3 (Ambush) 2nd and 3rd areas - Treetops * Rilfsak x3 * Epiolnis x2 * Diablo * Diablo, Rilfsak x2 Cave * Diablo x2 * Rilfsak x2, Epiolnis * Diablo * Diablo x2 (Back attack) Behind the scenes Dummied dialogue suggests a person in Bone Village gives details on the puzzles in Ancient Forest. The dialogue would allow the player to find information about Pitcher Plants (which carry insects and launch the character), "Big Eaters" (not translated in the English version, shut and damage the player when ran over), and Inchworms (the pink bouncy rope-like things that can be jumped onto). A dialogue-option for Scent Balls (which neutralize Big Eaters) exists, but no dialogue for its explanation exists in the data. There is a cave visible in the Corel Valley forest exit area that has a vine leading up to it, but the cave does not have exit data, and the vine has no climb data. It is indicated it was originally the exit of the Ancient Forest due to the dummied dialogue from Bone Village, an unrelated location, but also the order of the fields in-game, which are almost entirely in visit-order, that place the Ancient Forest fields after the Sleeping Forest fields (which are after the Bone Village fields). The enemy Ho-chu that is only encountered on the Battle Square in the final game, may have been intended to be a special encounter in the Ancient Forest. If hacked into the game, the Ancient Forest version of the battle cannot be escaped from, and thus Ho-chu was probably meant as a special encounter.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXJ9G5dV81Y#t=19 Musical themes The background music for the Ancient Forest is "In Search of the Man in Black" . The first in-game appearance of this composition is in the Mythril Mine. Gallery Ancient Forest FF7 Art 6.jpg|Concept art of the traps. Ancient Forest FF7 Art 1.jpg|Concept art of the second area. Ancient Forest FF7 Art 3.jpg|Concept art of the third area. Ancient Forest FF7 Art 2.jpg|Concept art of the treetops area. Ancient Forest FF7 Art 4.jpg|Concept art of the third area. Ancient Forest FF7 Art 5.jpg|Concept art of the fourth area. Ancient forest3.png|First Area. Ancient forest.png|Second Area. Ancient forest4.png|Third Area. Ancient forest2.png|Third Area, treetops. Ancient forest5.png|Fourth Area. References Category:Locations in Final Fantasy VII Category:Forests